Advice for Playing a Paladin

[Maladus]

Hello fello Arelithians! I am looking for advice on how to roleplay a paladin but also more broadly how to roleplay as a goodly character. I've spent most of my time on Arelith playing as either a Drow or a Banite or Banite-adjacent so I am so used to scheming and backstabbing.

I'm not sure what to do to get involved in the plot lines and things that are going on for the good guys. I want some pointers on how to play a paladin without being looked at as a stick in the mud holier than thou Lawful Stupid. For the record, I'm playing a paladin who is part of the Risen Sun heresy if that gives a general direction on what his outlook should be. I am also not very fond of sitting around in taverns just chatting and like a little more action, though the occasional drink after a fight isn't the worst thing in the world.

[Emotionaloverload]

Hello,

I find that playing goodly characters is about creating or reinforcing environments that suit their worldview.

So if you have a character that is sworn to Tyrran Justice, the environments that they try to achieve might be reforming laws, fighting against settlements with unjust laws, punishing the guilty (after appropriate investigation and documentation), encouraging magistrates, building a world around law and order through the lens of Triadic Justice.

While if you have a character sworn to Hoarite Justice, the environments they are trying to achieve might be lessen the reach of pacifist faiths, ensure that people are more likely to answer injustice with retribution (particularly with a note of irony) and instead focus laws and attitudes to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter.

Neither of these need to be sitting around in a tavern (although influencing people to your faith/perspective requires chatting with them in some setting). With a paladin/holy class, you get the extra flavour of their vows and oaths to lean on to determine how they will interact with others.

I recommend drafting a list of faiths that your paladin might be inclined to work with and conflict with to give yourself a cheat sheet for rp. I have this for my current Holy Grumpy Sourpuss and it is very helpful to quickly determine the attitude in a scene.

Hyper religious characters generally give you a lot of ammo (if you brush up on your lore) for engaging with the world. If you find being a stick in the mud fun (which I do, clearly) then great but also remember to pick some elements that give people something to engage on positively or neutrally. It cannot all be zealotry.

A great bit of conflict and retrospection for a follower of Amaunator might be determining who their superiors are, on an island where the faith is not present, for the most part. What sort of aspects would make one a superior and what sort would cause that status to be relinquished?

-S

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

This is more general advice for characters, but I think it's even more important for a class like paladin because none of us think like an actual paladin.

-Have a piece of your characters personality that is completely different from you, and make sure it's a core value. What this does is allow you to keep you and your character separate and makes it about role play over avatar play. As long as you can accomplish that, your character will feel like a living breathing thing and will be interesting no matter what you do.

[But Will It Blend]

Remember empathy. Seriously. It's... incredible how often this is forgotten as an aspect of good.

[Marsi]

Good is about limitations. A paladin is action-biased in the way a villain is, but he is governed by (self-imposed) rules.

I find it fun to give my paladins archaic and medieval codes of conduct that trammel their ability to be a mindless killbot, and create "outs". One of my paladins was sworn to never cause harm to a woman, much to the amusement of the female villains he would eventually encounter.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

write down your oaths before you even start your trek, and follow them even at the expense of your own character.

[Maladus]

Has anyone played a Risen Sun heretic before? Should they follow the dogma of Amaunator or Lathander?

[Anomandaris]

The oath is central. Someone said write it down and stick to it, that's amazing advice. It's very tempting to want to make exceptions to avoid conflict with allies or friends, but adherence to one's oath is unflinching. It's what makes the class very hard to play well.

The other hard part is how you deal with evil. Typically speaking there's very little tolerance for evil on a Paladin's behalf. In Arelith, you cant really and shouldn't really just smite every PC that's evil, because... reasons. So coming up with some pre-planned options for how you can interact with Evil PCs that does not involve killing them (at least on the spot), while maintaining your oath and character's integrity will be helpful.

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

The bit about how to deal with evil made me think of more good advice. Yes, one of paladins main things is to smite evil. Yes, they have the power to tell if you are evil (even though I personally don't think detect evil works well for a persistant world). But they also swear to follow and uphold laws as long as they are just.

What that means is, while you may be able to tell joe mcshiesty is evil just by looking at him, it's still not right to just smite him for that. And that's what opens the door for the paladins to be at their best for the game, because now you have to find proof of their crimes, which more often than not involves enlisting the aid of others and building a whole story around it.

And one last thing, sure you can get someone to scry that level 15 you know is evil from your god given power, see them summoning a devil out in the wilds, and call that proof of a crime. It makes sense ic, and probably isn't against any rules. But speaking for myself here, I know my respect level for you is going to plummet as a result. Make it fun and interactive lol.

[MarkRed]

Remember empathy. Seriously. It's... incredible how often this is forgotten as an aspect of good.

Empathy and Compassion are core values of a Paladin, so many in the past have ignored them. (I think most of the current active holy people are Clerics, Fav Souls and Div Champs, two of which have limitations still but not as heavy as Paladin. )

[But Will It Blend]

The bit about how to deal with evil made me think of more good advice. Yes, one of paladins main things is to smite evil. Yes, they have the power to tell if you are evil (even though I personally don't think detect evil works well for a persistant world). But they also swear to follow and uphold laws as long as they are just.

What that means is, while you may be able to tell joe mcshiesty is evil just by looking at him, it's still not right to just smite him for that. And that's what opens the door for the paladins to be at their best for the game, because now you have to find proof of their crimes, which more often than not involves enlisting the aid of others and building a whole story around it.

And one last thing, sure you can get someone to scry that level 15 you know is evil from your god given power, see them summoning a devil out in the wilds, and call that proof of a crime. It makes sense ic, and probably isn't against any rules. But speaking for myself here, I know my respect level for you is going to plummet as a result. Make it fun and interactive lol.

To add to this not all people who are evil commit crimes. Sometimes just being kind of a bastard who is self serving and cares about nobody else is evil, but isn't actually breaking any laws or doing anything they can be stopped for.

[JubJub]

The first question I always ask myself when I play a paladin is what would I tell my god if they asked me why did I do or not do something. Would they approve. They have a lot of wiggle room but in the end you have to be able to justify what you do. Ilmater probably wouldn't be thrilled if you walk about and punch folks in the head simply because you thought they were evil.

[ThisIsNotADrill]

A paladin being a paladin first and foremost, wouldn't likely violate the rules of engagement by striking first based on an assumption. That's kind of verboten by the paladin code of conduct.

Paladins do have some wiggle room in the religious sense because they're sponsored by a god to do paladin business, and that paladin business can sometimes be in conflict with the greater church and even a portion of that god's dogma.

A paladin sponsored by Jergal for instance would have (at the very least) some stern words for a cleric of Jergal that manages church-sanctioned undead labor camps. Situations where 'paladin gods' support two conflicting positions (paladin ethos vs clergy/church ethos usually) is not unheard of.

For my best paladin experience, I focus decision making based on an order of priorities with capital LG lawful good being the highest even above the code of conduct/oath, and even above direct commandments from the sponsoring god in some cases (wherein it might conflict with capital G good or other paladin priorities).

LG > G > paladin code of conduct/oath > church dogma > common consensus

The overwhelming majority of the time, the first for priorities won't be in conflict and can simply be folded together into 'LG paladin business', the ordering of priorities is only for those rare instances where you have to make some hard choices such as between acting in accordance with Law or with Good when 'both' isn't an option.

Your god sponsored you to pursue LG paladin business above all else, and sometimes that means doing what's right regardless of what you're told and even regardless of what that god generally promotes.

Jergal sponsored you to smash that undead labor camp. He'll probably be mad, you might get chewed out, but you've been chewed out before.

[Ork]

Remember empathy. Seriously. It's... incredible how often this is forgotten as an aspect of good.

Empathy and Compassion are core values of a Paladin, so many in the past have ignored them. (I think most of the current active holy people are Clerics, Fav Souls and Div Champs, two of which have limitations still but not as heavy as Paladin. )

Citation needed. A daily reminder from Gygax: "An eye for an eye is both lawful and good."

[Shadowy Reality]

Citation needed. A daily reminder from Gygax: "An eye for an eye is both lawful and good."

Except it's not really an eye for an eye if you read the rest of his post. As a concept it is kind of an eye for an eye, a murderer can be executed.
That falls apart if you take it to the letter (as an Hoarran might). That murderer killed it's victim by torturing every day until their body gave up? Yep, can't do that as a Paladin. This is actually where compassion and empathy ties in to their method. Even as punishment for someone so evil as a torturer, a Paladin would give them a relatively clean death.

[The GrumpyCat]

A couple of thoughts from myself

1) Whilst Alignment and Oaths are certainly important, good and interesting characterisation is more important. Don't get me wrong, if your Paladin is out there snogging drow, summoning undead and murdering children, we will smack them down. But also the team arn't exactly sitting there, noses pressed to the screen going 'oh yess... yesss... just one slip... juusst one little lie and you are DONE! Mwahahaha!'
Don't sweat the small stuff.

2) One of the greatest difficulties, IMO, for action orientated good guys is how to keep it fun for your opponents. Put some thought into that, if you can. With a bad guy* after you've caught your quarry, you've got options like torture/enslavement/randsome/brainwashing... lots of interesting rp to give to a PC potentially.
For a Paladin, it's harder, or even impossible, to justify some of those things,. You tend to fall back to 'ok I bash you now' or 'ok I redeem you now.' Again - the DM team are generally more interested in players who work to make fun story for those around them, rather than those who go 'I MUST KILL BASH this person because there is NOTHING ELSE a LAWFUL GOOD person could EVER do...' But it's a hard line to walk down. So - I'd suggest if possible you take time to consider how you'd interact with your evil foes, in ways that might make the experience fun for them, as well.

*Very rough terms, but needed for the example

[Snake2512]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl_MrnRbWTw

[ThisIsNotADrill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl_MrnRbWTw

and /thread

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Lawful Good is not Lawful Nice.

A good paladin will almost always have difficulty interacting with other good-aligned characters (good vs good conflict is vastly more interesting, just like evil vs evil)

A paladin should be in a constant state of 'falling', because the demands of a paladin are so ridiculously high. Playing a paladin is about wrestling these ideas of moral and ethical perfection with the realities of being human (or elven or dwarven or whatever).

Paladin who converts a Banite is always better than a paladin who smites a Banite.

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These are things I've read and witnessed over the years that I think are great maxims and starting places for rolling up a paladin.